


Dice

by SleepsWithCoyotes



Category: American McGee's Alice, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Crossover, Gen, archive fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 10:18:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14042097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepsWithCoyotes/pseuds/SleepsWithCoyotes
Summary: She's not a princess. She's a queen.





	Dice

**Author's Note:**

> For a KH wordfic challenge: dice.

She was the only spot of color in the Pale Realm, the blue of her dress and the green of her eyes, and-- _oh, dear,_ as dear Rabbit would say--a few bright touches of red. She stood out. And to think she'd once thought herself quite ordinary.

Darting down a checkered corridor, she slowed as she neared the corner, the sound of marble gliding against marble echoing back to her. It could be one of the White pieces; the Red invaders mostly traveled in packs, and this sound was stealthy, quiet. Another scrape, a wordless, squealing chirp: though her fingers didn't loosen their clutch on her knife, some of the tension relaxed from her shoulders. Red or White, it was only a pawn, and pawns were easily dealt with.

Peering cautiously around the corner, ready to duck back and flatten her spine to the wall if it looked like she'd be spotted, she let her breath out in a slow, relieved sigh as she saw a single White pawn patrolling the halls up ahead. Back and forth it slid, sometimes hopped, one square at a time, its cyclopean eye roving watchfully for intruders. When she stepped from the shelter of the wall, it noticed her instantly, but its chirped greeting was complacent, one defender to another.

"All's clear?" she asked, though she knew it couldn't answer in words, poor thing. They'd been able to once, before Wonderland changed; if Caterpillar was right, then the fault for that was hers. Her heart and Wonderland's were inextricably linked; damage to one meant damage to the other.

Since the fire, she'd felt anything but whole.

Squealing an affirmative, the White pawn continued its sentry-like pacing, steady as a metronome. She was almost tempted to stay with it, but it was only a pawn, after all; it couldn't help her, and her presence might draw more trouble than she could protect it from. If she merely wanted company, she could call for Cat; he might even choose to answer.

She was about to make her farewells when the pawn stopped with a heavy thump, chirping a question and staring past her, back the way she'd come.

Whipping around with her knife at the ready, Alice narrowed her eyes at the smear of black swimming through the chessboard marble towards them, strangely familiar though it was utterly alien. The yellow eyes, the crooked quirk of black antennae...she'd seen this thing before, though it must have been years ago, back when she was still a child. What had they been called again?

_"Heartless,"_ she remembered an older boy telling her, his hand warm and firm on hers as he dragged her away like a rebellious younger sister. _"They're Heartless, and they'll be drawn to you until I get you out of here. They're always drawn to a Princess of Heart."_

_"But I'm not a princess,"_ she remembered telling him; she'd been a quite truthful child. _"I'm a queen."_

His raised brow had said he didn't believe her, but he hadn't argued. He'd merely taken her away, and then she'd slept, until that other boy had set her free.

_Sora._

It was all coming back now, and she felt a brief spark of pity as the Shadow popped up from the floor, gained shape and depth. She'd lost many things herself, but at least she'd never lost her heart. She was still Alice, still herself; not even the asylum could change that.

When two more Shadows crept down the wall to join the first, a fourth and a fifth rising from black squares and more gathering down the hall, she put herself between the Heartless and the nervous White pawn, reaching into the pocket of her pinafore. Against one enemy, even two, her knife had never failed her, but this called for sterner measures.

_"A weapon is not a toy,"_ Cat had cautioned her once, only to follow it up with a swift smile, fierce and bloodstained. _"Except when it is."_

The Demon Dice were hot as embers in her hand, but she held them tightly, trying to judge her throw. Like most of her weapons, they would turn on their owner in a heartbeat; if they landed too close, the creatures summoned would as soon attack her as the Heartless. And if they finished with the Heartless too quickly, she and her allies would be next.

"I'm very sorry," she said without looking over her shoulder, hoping the pawn would understand. She was a queen, after all, and the closest thing she had to a prince was a mangy cat who liked riddles, brought her imps and snarks sometimes in place of mice, bloody trophies only another cat could love. And she did love him; she loved all of Wonderland, and that was why she couldn't afford to be too careful, too nice.

No prince could slay the Red Queen in her place, and not even an army of Heartless could keep her from the castle. She wasn't a little girl anymore; she could do her rescuing herself. It was, she realized with a slow, wondering smile, what Cat had been trying to tell her all along.

Fearless now, grinning like Cat himself, she watched the Shadows gather and picked her moment, threw the dice and watched them fall.


End file.
